I am pleased to announce that Peter Clarke has been appointed as Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Prisons for 3 years, commencing 1 February 2016 and Dame Glenys Stacey has been appointed as Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Probation for 3 years, commencing 1 March 2016.

Peter Clarke is a retired senior police officer, who served in the Metropolitan Police Service for more than 30 years. He rose to the rank of Assistant Commissioner and also served as Head of the Anti-Terrorist Branch and National Co-ordinator of Terrorist Investigations. In 2014 he was appointed Education Commissioner for Birmingham, to conduct an inquiry into the allegations concerning Birmingham schools arising from the “Trojan Horse” letter. Peter also served on the Board of the Charity Commission until January 2016.

Dame Glenys Stacey is currently the Chief Executive of Ofqual, the exams regulator in England. She is a solicitor by profession and has 17 years’ experience leading public sector organisations, having previously served as CEO of Standards for England, Animal Health, the Greater Manchester Magistrates’ Courts Committee and the Criminal Cases Review Commission. In August 2015 she announced her intention to leave Ofqual when her current term finishes at the end of February 2016.

These appointments have been made after a recruitment process for these posts which followed the Commissioner for Public Appointments’ Code of Practice. Both roles were advertised online and candidates were then assessed against the criteria for the posts. An independent selection panel produced a shortlist of candidates deemed appointable. As required under the rules, I then selected my preferred candidates from that shortlist. Peter Clarke and Dame Glenys Stacey appeared before the Justice Select Committee, which concluded both were appointable to the roles of HM Chief Inspector of Prisons and HM Chief Inspector of Probation respectively.